Combination door and wharf-drop mechanism.



A. T. PRESCOTT. COMBINATION DooR AND WHANP DROP NBGHANISM.

APIPLIGATION FILED MAYB, 1913.

Patented Apr. 21, 1914 2 SHEETS-SHBET 1.

ATTORNEY Uil lflllll lllll l .lll

A. T. PRESCOTT. COMBINATION DOOR AND WHARP DROP MEGHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED MAY s, 1913.

1,094,01 5. Patented Apr. 21, 1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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ATTORNEY NTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR T. PRESCOTT, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO GEORGE H. FROIHINGI-IAM. COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

COMBINATION DOOR AND WHA-RF-DROP MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 2f, 1914.

Application led May 8, 1913. Serial No. 766,273.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, ARTHUR T. PREsooTr, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of East Orange, in the county of- Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Oombination Door and lharf-Drop Mechanisms,dof which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof. h v

My invention relates to the side and end openings in pier-sheds and to movable gangways and closures therefor.

One object of my invention is to provide a combined door and wharf-drop mechanism that shall be relatively simple and durable in construction of which the coperating mechanisms shall not interfere with each other and are so arranged that the door will always be adapted to close the opening into the pier-shed irrespective of the position occupied by the wharf-drop.

Other objects of my invention will be set forth hereinafter.

I will describe my invention in the following specification and point out the novel features thereof in appended claims.

am aware that wharf-drop mechanisms are well known but it is my aim to provide a combined wharf-drop and door mechanism which is arranged to permit the two members which are manipulated viz., the door and the wharf-drop to cooperate in a particularly advantageous manner.

Referring to the drawings, Figure l is a front elevation of a combined mechanism arranged and constructed'in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional view on the lines 2--2 of Fig. 1. Fig..3 is a plan view of the mechanism of Figs. 1 and 2 with certain of the parts broken away to disclose the mechanism more in detail. An outline or semidiagrammatic view is shown in Fig. 4 and illustrates the door and wharfdrop in their relation one to the other and to a vessel which is represented at the dock. Fig. 5 is a sectional plan view of a portion, adjacent to their edges, of the overlapped door sections.

Like characters of reference designato corresponding parts in all the figures.

Referring first to Fig. 4, 10 represents av dock of which 11 is the floor level. A wharfdrop 12 is pivotally supported at 13 and extends to the edge of the dock and forms the vertically movable threshold of the opening 14. A gang plank 15 is shown resting upon 1t' and upon the deck of a vessel 16. The pier-shed opening 14 is the usual one provided for the passage of freight or cargo between the vessel and the dock. This opening may beclosed by any suitable door, such for example, as one having an upper section 17 and a bottom section 18 which is vertically movable on the upper section and is adapted to'rest on the wharf-drop. With such a door it is possible to keep the opening 14 closed not only when the wharf-drop is held stationary at a predetermined position by its supporting mechanism, as hereinafter described, but also when the wharf-drop is set in any one of a plurality of positions, within the range of movement of the bottom section 1'8 of the door.

The operating mechanism which is arranged to open and close the door and control the position of the wharf-drop is shown in detail in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 to which reference may now beV had. The pier shed comprises a pair of substantially vertical beams or columns 2O and 21 located one on each side of the door opening and a cross beam 22 supported thereby. Thus the pier shed structure is used in place of a gallows frame. On the cross beam 22 are mounted chain sheaves 23 and 24 which are attached to worm wheels 25 and 26 and are arranged to be driven by worm gears 27 and 28 `which are mounted on a common shaft 29. A hand chain 30 is suspended from an actuating pulley- 31 located at one end of the shaft 29. The pulley is either secured to the shaft or operatively connectedv thereto `by gears as shown in Fig. 3. Draft chains 35 and 36 are secured to the wharf-drop 12 by bolts 37 or by some other suitable means, extend upwardly over the sheaves 23 and 24 and are secured vat their opposite ends to counterweights 38 and 39 at the sides of columns 20 and 21.

The door section 17 is suspended from the crossv beam 22 by links 40 and 41. As shown `in Fig. 4, these links are pivoted near the top of the door on the cross-beams 22 at their upper ends and at their lower ends to jcorresponding intermediate points on opposite sides of the door. j18 is guidedr at its edges by channels 17a as The bottom section it slides up over the section 17. At its lower corners are rollers 19 which run up along the inner surfaces of the upright members of the door frame, and along its lower edge is a cross-strip or liange projection 44, which engages the bottom of the upper section of the door when the bottom section is raised to its fullest extent and rests upon the wharf-drop 12 when the bottom section is suiiiciently lowered.

Chains 50 and 51 are secured to the respective ends of the cross strip 44 or are otherwise attached to the lower corners of the bottom section of the door and extend upwardly over sheaves 52 and 53 which are mounted on a transverse shaft 54, and down to door counterweights 57, 58 which run alongside of the wharf-drop counterweights 88, 39. The shaft 54 is supported by the same cross beam 22 as the shaft 29 and is parallel with it. An operating chain 55 passes over a driving sheave 56 which is operatively connected to one end of the shaft 54. lThe hand chain 8O and the operating chain 55 are preferably located at the same edge of the door so that they may be operated either together or independently by v a single attendant.

The operation of the mechanism and apparatus is as follows: Assuming that the parts occupy the positions in which they are shownin the drawings, the door may be opened by pulling in one direction on the hand chain 55. The lirst effect of this action is to turn the shaft 54, through a train of gearing comprising the pulley 56, and speed reducing gears 60 to 63 inclusive. When the shaft 54 is turned, pulleys 52 and 53 are rotated and the lower section 18 of the door is raised by the chains 50 and 51 until the bottom flange 44 engages the bottom of the upper door section 17. If the hand chain is still further actuated, the upper door section together with the overlying bottom section are swung inwardly unt-il finally they occupy the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 4. The wharf-drop, may be adjusted to any desired level by manipulating the hand chain 30, the pulley 31 with which the chain coperates being connected to the shaft 29 by suitable speed reducing gearing. The setting of the wharfdrop will of course depend upon the vessel which is at the vdock and upon the water level or tide if the dock is at tide water.

It may obviously be desirable to close the door when the wharf-drop is in any of its different positions and the arrangement of the bottom section of the door is of special advantage in permitting the wharf-drop to move in response to its vertical movements without injuring the door or uncovering any material opening.

Attention is directed to the fact that the top of the door when closed, fits under a header 65 provided in the pier-shed or forming a part of the gallows frame 22, being thus removed from occupying any space within the pier-shed. At the same time t-he door when open is swung entirely out of the way.

The arrangement of the bottom section relative to the body of the door is such that the opening and closing mechanism needs only to be connected to the bottom section and may therefore be made very simple and occupy a very small space.

Variations in size and arrangement of parts may be effected within the spirit and scope of my invention.

What I claim is:

1. rl`he combination with a pier shed structure having a door opening and comprising a cross-beam and a pivotally supported wharf-drop .having one end adjustably suspended from said cross-beam, of a pier-shed door adapted to close said opening and suspended from the same cross-beam, and means for raising and lowering the wharf-drop and the pier-shed door.

2. rlhe combination with a pier-shed structure having a door opening and comprising a cross-beam and a pivotally supported wharfdrop having one end adjustably suspended therefrom, of a pier-shed door adapted to close said opening and having a vertically slidable bottom section adapted to rest on the wharf-drop and suspended from said cross-beam, and means for raising and lowering the wharf-drop and the pier-shed door,

3. The combination with a pier-shed structure having a door opening and comprising a cross-beam, a pivotally supported wharfdrop having one end adjustably suspended from said cross-beam, and means for raising and lowering said wharf-drop; of a piershed door adapted to close said opening and having a vertically slidable bottom section adapted to rest on the wharf-drop and suspended from the cross-beam by a pair of links located one on each side of the door, and means for successively raising the bottom section of the door and swinging the door together with said bottom section on said links.

4. The combination with a pier and a pier-shed structure having a door opening and comprising a cross-beam and having a wharf-drop pivotally connected to the pier at one end and adjustably suspended from the cross-beam at the other, and means for raising and lowering said wharf-drop; of a pier-shed door adapted to close said opening and a pair of links connected thereto, one at each edge of the door and pivotally suspended from the cross-beam, and means for raising and lowering the pier-shed door.

5. The combination with a pier and a pier-shed structure having a door opening Loc/015 and comprising a cross-beam and having a wharf-drop pivotally connected to the pier at one end, chain pulleys rotatively sup* ported on the cross-beam, chains secured to the free end of the wharf-drop and coperating with chain pulleys, and means for actuating the chain pulley for raising and lowering the wharf-drop, of a pier-shed door adapted to close said opening and having an upper section and a bottom section vertically slidable on said upper section, a pair of links pivotally connected to the crossbeam at one end and to the upper section of the pier-shed door at the other end, and means for raising and lowering the bottom section relative to the upper section and swinging the upper section and bottom section of said door together relatively to the crossbeam.

G. The combination with a pier and a pier-shed structure having a door opening and comprising a cross-beam over said opening and having a Wharf-drop in alinernent with said opening pivotally connected to the pier at o-ne end, chain pulleys rotatively supported on the cross-beam and chains secured to the free end of the wharf-drop and cooperating with chain pulleys7 of a piershed door adapted to close the door opening, said door having an upper section and a bottom section vertically slidable on said upper section, a pair of links pivotally connected with Jthe cross-beam at one end and to the upper section of the pier-shed door at the other end, a second pair of chain pulleys rotatively supported on the cross-beam, chains cooperating with the chain pulleys, secured to the bottom section of the pierslied door, and hand chains for actuating the respective sets of chain pulleys for raising and lowering the wharf-drop and for raising and lowering the pier-shed door.

7. The combination with a pier and a -pier-shed structure having a door opening and comprising vertical columns at the sides of said opening and a cross-beam over the opening, of a wharf-drop in alinement with said opening pivotally connected to the pier at one end, counterweights therefor, located at the respective sides oi' said columns, chain pulleys rotatively supported on the crossbeam and chains secured to the free end of the wharfdrop and to the counterweights and cooperating with chain pulleys, of a pier-shed door adapted to close the door opening, said door having an upper section and a bottom section vertically slidable on said upper section, a pair of links pivotally mounted on the cross-beam at one end and to the upper section of the pier shed door at the other end, counter-weights for the pier-shed door located one on each side of the vertical columns, a second pair of chain pulleys rotatively supported on the crossbeam, chains cooperating with the chain pulleys, secured to the bottom section of the pier-shed door and to the door counterweights and hand chains for actuating the respective sets of chain pulleys for raising and lowering the pier-shed door, the wharfdrop counterweights and the door counterweights being located side by side between the sides of the opening and the vertical columns.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 6th day of May in the year 1913.

ARTHUR T. PRESCOTT. Witnesses:

D. E, DEUTSCH, ARTHUR D. MORRIS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. C. 

